Arshile
Gorky, born, 1904, Turkish Armenia; died, 1948, Connecticut,
was born Vosdanik Adoian in the village of Khorkom, province of
Van, Armenia, on April 15, 1904. The Adoians became refugees from
the Turkish invasion; Gorky himself left Van in 1915 and arrived in
the United States about March 1, 1920. He stayed with relatives in
Watertown, Massachusetts, and with his father, who had settled in
Providence, Rhode Island. By 1922 he lived in Watertown and taught
at the New School of Design in Boston. In 1925 he moved to New York
and changed his name to Arshile Gorky. He entered the Grand Central
School of Art in New York as a student but soon became an
instructor of drawing; from 1926 to 1931 he was a member of the
faculty. Throughout the 1920s Gorky's painting was influenced by
Georges Braque,
Paul Cézanne,
and, above all,
Pablo Picasso.

In 1930 Gorky's
work was included in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York. During the thirties he associated closely with
Stuart Davis,
Willem de Kooning,
and
John Graham;
he shared a studio with
de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
late in the decade. Gorky's first solo show took place
at the Mellon Galleries in Philadelphia in 1931. From 1935 to 1937
he worked under the WPA Federal Art Project on murals for Newark
Airport. His involvement with the WPA continued into 1941. Gorky's
first solo show in New York was held at the Boyer Galleries in
1938. The San Francisco Museum of Art exhibited his work in 1941.

In the 1940s he was
profoundly affected by the work of European
Surrealists,
particularly
Joan Miró,
André Masson,
and
Matta.
By 1944 he met
André Breton
and became a friend of other
Surrealist
emigrés. Gorky's first exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery
in New York took place in 1945. From 1942 to 1948 he worked for
part of each year in the countryside of Connecticut or Virginia. A
succession of personal tragedies, including a fire in his studio
that destroyed much of his work, a serious operation, and an
automobile accident, preceded Gorky's death by suicide on July 21,
1948, in Sherman, Connecticut.

All images, pictures, etc. contained here are gleaned from Usenet, or
some other public access archive. We believe all entries to be in the
public domain and, therefore, are without restriction for personal use.
Should you want to use any image on this site for commercial
purposes, you will need to consult with a competent attorney to determine
your rights. If you see errors or omissions (e.g., missing artists, artist
not cross-referenced by century or ethnicity), or if you own the copyright
to an image displayed here, please contact us.